Colin Firth

Colin Firth   (actor, producer, writer)
Born	Colin Andrew Firth 10 September 1960
Alma mater	National Youth Theatre, Drama Centre London
Interests	• ARK

Colin Firth is an English actor, producer and writer.

Latest role

On 23 January 2024, the BBC reported that Colin Firth is to play the part of Dr Jim Swire in a new series about the December 1988 Lockerbie disaster in which Pan Am Flight 103 exploded in Scotland with the loss of 270 lives.

The five-part Comcast co-production between Carnival Films and Sky Studios, entitled "Lockerbie", is expected to begin production early in 2024 and is based, in part, on the book Dr Swire wrote with Peter Biddulph - "The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father's Search for Justice".

Acting career

Colin Firth was identified in the mid-1980s with the "Brit Pack" of rising young British actors, undertaking a challenging series of roles, including leading roles in "A Month in the Country" (1987), "Tumbledown" (1988) and "Valmont" (1989). His portrayal of Mr Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" led to widespread attention, and to roles in more prominent films such as "The English Patient" (1996), "Shakespeare in Love" (1998), "The Importance of Being Earnest" (2002), "Girl with a Pearl Earring" (2003), and "Love Actually" (2003), co-starring as Mark Darcy in the romantic comedy films "Bridget Jones's Diary" (2001), "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason" (2004), and "Bridget Jones's Baby" (2016), and Harry Bright in the musical comedy films "Mamma Mia!" (2008) and "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again!" (2018).

In 2009, Firth received international acclaim for his performance in Tom Ford's "A Single Man", for which he won a BAFTA Award and the Volpi Cup for Best Actor and received his first Academy Award nomination. In 2010, his portrayal of King George VI in Tom Hooper's "The King's Speech" won him the Academy Award for Best Actor. He subsequently appeared as MI6 agent Bill Haydon in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" (2011), and as secret agent Harry Hart / Agent Galahad in "Kingsman: The Secret Service" (2014) and its sequel "Kingsman: The Golden Circle" (2017). He has since appeared in the musical fantasy film "Mary Poppins Returns" (2018), the war film "1917" (2019), and the romance film "Supernova" (2020). He is also known for his performances in television, including BBC's "Conspiracy" (2001) and HBO's "The Staircase" (2022), receiving Primetime Emmy Award nominations for each.

Film production

In 2012, he founded the production company Raindog Films, where he served as a producer for "Eye in the Sky" (2015) and "Loving" (2016). His films have grossed more than $3 billion from 42 releases worldwide. Firth has campaigned for the rights of Indigenous people and is a member of Survival International. He has also campaigned on issues of asylum seekers, refugees' rights and the environment. He commissioned and co-authored a scientific paper on a study of the differences in brain structure between people of differing political orientations.

Awards

Colin Firth is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2011, Firth was appointed a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for his services to drama. That same year, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and appeared in TIME magazine's 100 most influential people in the world.

Writing

Firth's first published work, "The Department of Nothing", appeared in "Speaking with the Angel" (2000),[112] a collection of short stories edited by Nick Hornby and published to benefit the TreeHouse Trust to aid autistic children. Firth met Hornby during the filming of the original "Fever Pitch". He contributed to the book "We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples" (2009), which explores the cultures, diversity and challenges of Indigenous peoples around the world. It features contributions from many Western writers, including Laurens van der Post, Noam Chomsky, Claude Lévi-Strauss; and from Indigenous people such as Davi Kopenawa Yanomami and Roy Sesana. Profits from the book's sale benefit the Indigenous rights organisation Survival International. Firth was an executive producer for the film "In Prison My Whole Life", featuring Noam Chomsky and Angela Davis. It was selected to the 2007 London Film Festival and the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

In December 2010, Colin Firth was guest editor on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, where he commissioned research to scan the brains of volunteers (mostly university students) to see if there were structural differences that might account for political leanings. The resulting academic paper listed him as an author, along with two University College London researchers and the science reporter of the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. For his contribution, professor John Jost called Firth a 'scientific ambassador' in the field of political neuroscience. The study suggested that Conservatives had more development in the amygdala, and Lib Dems in the anterior cingulate cortex.

In 2012, Firth's audiobook recording of Graham Greene's "The End of the Affair" was released at Audible.com and was declared Audiobook of the Year at the 2013 Audie Awards.

Activism

Colin Firth has been a longstanding supporter of Survival International, a non-governmental organisation that defends the rights of tribal peoples. Speaking in 2001, he said, "My interest in tribal peoples goes back many years ... and I have supported 'Survival' ever since." In 2003, during the promotion of "Love Actually", he spoke in defence of the Indigenous people of Botswana, condemning the Botswana government's eviction of the Gana and Gwi people (San) from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. He said of the San, "These people are not the remnants of a past era who need to be brought up to date. Those who are able to continue to live on the land that is rightfully theirs are facing the 21st century with a confidence that many of us in the so-called developed world can only envy." He has also backed a Survival International campaign to press the Brazilian government to take more decisive action in defence of Awá-Guajá people, whose land and livelihood is critically threatened by the actions of loggers.

As a supporter of the Refugee Council, Firth was involved in a campaign to stop the deportation of a group of 42 Congolese asylum seekers, expressing concerns in open letters to The Independent and The Guardian that they faced being murdered on their return to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Firth said: "To me, it's just basic civilisation to help people. I find this incredibly painful to see how we dismiss the most desperate people in our society. It's easily done. It plays to the tabloids, to the Middle-England xenophobes. It just makes me furious. And all from a government we once had such high hopes for." Four of the asylum seekers were given last-minute reprieves from deportation.

Firth, along with other celebrities, has been involved in the Oxfam global campaign Make Trade Fair, focusing on trade practices considered especially unfair to Third World producers, including dumping, high import tariffs, and labour rights. He and some collaborators opened Eco, an eco-friendly shop in West London, which offers fair-trade and eco-friendly goods, and expert advice on making spaces more energy efficient. In October 2009, at the London Film Festival, he launched a film and political activism website, Brightwide (since decommissioned), with his wife Livia.

During the 2010 General Election, Firth announced his support for the Liberal Democrats, having previously been a Labour supporter, citing asylum and refugees' rights as key reasons for the change. In December 2010, he publicly dropped his support of the Liberal Democrats, citing their U-turn on tuition fees, and said that he was currently unaffiliated. He appeared in literature supporting changing the British electoral system from first-past-the-post to alternative vote for electing members of parliament to the House of Commons, in the unsuccessful Alternative Vote referendum in 2011.

In 2009, he joined the 10:10 project, supporting the movement calling for people to reduce their carbon footprints. In 2010, he endorsed the "Roots & Shoots" education programme in the UK run by the Jane Goodall Institute (UK).

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References

This page imported content from Wikipedia on 24 January 2024.
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